


Worthwhile Risk

by Jalules



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Developing Relationship, Dialogue Heavy, F/M, M/M, Polyamory, Relationship Negotiation, content warning though: discussion of death, everyone can kiss each other and no one dies, here let me fix your garbage canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-21
Updated: 2016-10-21
Packaged: 2018-08-23 19:17:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8339527
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jalules/pseuds/Jalules
Summary: “I’ve been thinking,” She said, “About Henry.”Gansey’s heart quite suddenly beat double time. (Or; Blue and Gansey would both very much like to date Henry, who is amenable to the idea, but there is the issue of a potentially deadly kiss to discuss first.)





	

_. _

_. _

“Where to next, do you think?”

Gansey posed the question from his makeshift seat on the cement steps of a large and outdated convention center.

Midway through their Great American road trip, with a respectable number of ‘Must See’ items crossed off their itinerary by way of accomplishment or loss of interest, the loose plan that had been set in place at the start of the trip had become even looser, a development that Gansey in particular was greatly enjoying. 

The more detours they took, the more lazy days spent sitting seaside or at small town parks or in flowering fields, the better. The current detour was set to wrap up soon, and then they would be back on the road.

Blue, perched one step higher, just near enough for their fingers to intertwine, looked distractedly from a plane passing overhead back down to Gansey beside her, “Hm. Wherever the next rest stop takes us.”

It was a half-hearted joke, and her spirit didn’t seem to be in it, but Gansey still smiled indulgently. Their current plan was the result of a stop along the highway just a few hours ago, a break to use bathrooms and raid vending machines, during which Henry had perused a corkboard listing of upcoming local events and declared, delighted, that there was an electronics showcase  _ and _ an antiques fair going on at the  _ same time _ at the  _ same center _ that very day.

“Bound to be either very interesting or very hilarious,” He’d said, “Or both.”

So they had driven the extra forty-five minutes out of what could be very vaguely defined as “their way,” to attend. And it was, as Henry promised, both interesting and hilarious in parts. Something about the juxtaposition of booths full of sleek and largely useless technology sitting just down the hall from other booths packed with hideous old paintings and spindly, delicately crafted furniture made for an entertaining experience overall. Together they spent the better part of an hour engaging in a private game where Henry and Gansey offered to buy Blue increasingly ridiculous gifts from booths on either side, which had her laughing until she wasn’t, eventually becoming irritable and distant with what she insisted was just a need to eat something.

So Gansey and Blue had excused themselves after a full walkthrough of both sides, leaving Henry to smirk at inferior technology and Robo Bee to covertly gather data on mysterious looking antiques for Henry’s mother.

“Ah, yes,” Henry had said, nearly shooing them away, “Go get a coffee or gelato or whatever it is couples do,” He’d winked, “Crazy kids.”

It turned out that what couples did, or at least the version of a couple that Blue and Gansey operated as, was pick up overpriced soft pretzels and sit around outside people watching and waiting for Henry. 

“I believe it’s your turn to scout out our next obscure event,” Gansey said, “Upcycle market, maybe? Yogurt Lovers Expo?”

Blue smiled thinly back at him, still distracted despite having eaten her own pretzel and the better half of Gansey’s, “Don’t tempt me with the market of my dreams if you can’t deliver.”

_ Dreams _ , she said, and just like that, Gansey missed Ronan, missed Adam, missed Monmouth and Noah’s presence and the slow crawl of Henrietta. He missed Henry, who he’d seen only a few minutes ago, but whenever he was gone something felt unbalanced, incomplete.

“What are you thinking?” Blue’s question caught Gansey’s attention like a fish hook to his consciousness. She had the cautious look of someone who wasn’t sure the person they were speaking to could truly hear them, was even really there. It wasn’t an unreasonable concern.

Gansey looped his fingers in hers more securely, assuring her that he was in the present and nowhere else. Missing absent loved ones, while eerily similar to missing moments of time that he was never meant to experience all at once, was a more average and acceptable feeling, “Nothing terrible,” He promised, “Only that, it feels a little funny when it’s just the two of us. Not that I don’t value the time together,” He corrected hurriedly, “But I’ve become so accustomed to third and fourth and fifth parties, I’m not sure I know how to behave as a duo.”

Blue looked at him knowingly, perhaps more so than he would have expected, “Me neither,” She said softly, and looked back to the sky to watch another distant plane’s course toward the West.

Gansey tipped his head to watch it with her, a silver speck across his field of vision becoming more and more indistinct until it was out of sight. He looked to her then, instead, and found her gaze fixed worriedly upward. Gently, he asked, “What are  _ you _ thinking?”

Blue breathed out slow and steady. She let her head tip to rest on her shoulder and looked at him, looked into his eyes in a way he had learned meant she loved him, meant she was being painfully honest, meant she was afraid, “I’ve been thinking,” She said, “About Henry.”

Gansey’s heart quite suddenly beat double time, “Oh?” He said, as casually as he could manage. Because here was the matter they had been tiptoeing around for the past few weeks, for even longer if he was honest with himself. Thinking about Henry; of course she was thinking about Henry.

He’d been doing the same, not just in the past few moments but since a friendly face had drawn him out of a panic attack, since he’d spent a night dressed in bedsheets and feeling like himself for once, since watching his parent’s expressions shift in understanding as Henry advocated for all their mental health, since he’d seen Blue inspecting the empty engine of the dream Camaro and glowing with potential as she grinned, not just at him, but at Henry too, the decision that the three of them should be together for this unspoken and universally accepted.

Henry wasn’t just a travel companion, just a friend. He was something more. Something yet to be defined. And Gansey was waiting on Blue to help make that definition.

“I like him an awful lot,” She told him quietly, “The same way I like you.”

Gansey beamed at the confession, grabbing up her other hand to hold, “I do too,” He said, an excited stage whisper, “He’s incredible.”

Blue frowned as though he was missing the point, “I want to  _ kiss _ him,” She said slowly, clearly.

And Gansey nearly laughed in joyful relief, “I feel the same,” He said in a rush, delighted all over again to be with her, this marvelous, stunning woman who was bright and lovely and nearly perfect, perfect for  _ him _ , god they were perfect for each  _ other _ , all on the same wavelength and now they could meet Henry there too.

“But- ” Blue protested weakly, and Gansey looked into her eyes and smiled so wide and earnestly that there was no way she could be mistaken in his feelings, his intentions.

“Oh no, Jane this is wonderful! I’m so glad you brought it up. I’d been trying to figure how to go about this for ages! I thought we were on the same page, but you know it has the potential to be such a touchy subject- ”

“Gansey,” Blue interrupted, squeezing his hands much too tight. She looked so concerned that half of the joy drained out of him in an instant. He clung to the fading feeling, wanting only to see her smile. Miserably, she said, “I don’t know if I  _ can _ .”

The words didn’t quite register, their insecure whine sounding all wrong in Blue’s normally certain voice.

“Of course you can,” Gansey said encouragingly, “You have the skill set, that’s for sure, and I don’t believe Henry would be at all opposed,” He trailed off, taking in the strange expression on her face, something like disbelief, “And of course it would be alright with me, if that’s what’s holding you back.”

Blue curled her lip in disgust at the notion of any man’s opinion holding her back. It made Gansey exceptionally fond.

“Gansey,” She said very seriously, “I don’t know if I can kiss Henry without  _ killing _ him.”

The rest of the elation in Gansey’s body fled at once at the reminder. Right. Of course. The prophecy. The curse. That old wheeze.

Feeling quite a fool, Gansey cleared his throat and said, “I admit I’d forgotten that stipulation,” He huffed a chagrined laugh at his own expense, all the anxiety and anguish that had gnawed at him between the time he realized that Blue Sargent was a person he badly wanted to kiss and the moment he was finally able to kiss her without fear of death came rushing back, refitted to suit concern for Henry’s well being, “That’s what I get for being spoiled on this… life business.”

Blue turned one of his hands over in her own, cupping it between her palms in warm reassurance before he could slip off into any guilt trips or existential crises. They sat together in relative silence, worrying at the same thoughts, mulling over the same questions, speaking in intermittent whispers in case the topic of their conversation suddenly burst through the convention center doors.

“Do you think the curse still applies? It hasn’t been an issue since the first time.” 

“I’m not sure. It was only ever  _ if I kiss my true love _ , no other specifics. But if I truly love more than one person- ”

“It could be an entirely different ball game.”

“Or it could be the same mess all over again.”

“There’s a chance we could be worrying over nothing. You could kiss him and he’d be fine.”

“Or he could  _ die _ . That’s a hell of a gamble to take for a kiss.”

“Well, I took it.”

“Not everyone is  _ fated to die _ on a mystical energy grid.”

“Touché.”

Gansey moped. Blue fumed.

“I assume there’s already been a discussion at 300 Fox Way that accounted for a polyamorous angle?” He asked eventually.

“Several,” Blue confirmed, “All inconclusive,” She fumed for a few moments more before her frustration fizzled out, making her curl in close to Gansey’s side, sullen, “He might not want to anyway.”

“Blue, please,” Gansey said, absentmindedly petting her hair, “Just yesterday he invited himself to our hypothetical wedding night.”

“He also offered to take care of you if I ever died tragically or ran off with a sculptor from a desert town,” Blue added.

“And vice versa,” Gansey reminded her, taking hold of a barrette that had slid almost completely away from her hair, threatening to fall. He slipped it free and put it in his pants pocket for safekeeping, “I am  _ fairly _ sure he would like to kiss you.”

“And you,” Blue said fondly.

“And me,” Gansey agreed, a flush creeping up his neck.

“We have to tell him how we feel,” Blue said, “At least.”

Gansey would have agreed, if a voice several feet behind them hadn’t interrupted with, “So  _ there _ are the young lovers! Didn’t wander far, did you?” He and Blue both turned to watch Henry skip jauntily down the steps to meet them, his already bright sneakers nearly blinding against the dull cement, “You did get our girl something to eat, didn’t you, Ganseyman? We wouldn’t want her fainting away now.”

_ Our girl _ ; the words filled Gansey to every edge, sounding so right in the plural that he wanted to bolt upright and sweep Henry into their embrace, hold him there until everything was understood and settled. He didn’t move at all.

“I’ve been sated,” Blue said snippily, teetering on the borderline between sarcasm and flirtation. She slipped her hand free of Gansey’s and stood, brushing off her skirt, “For now.”

“Excellent,” Henry said, clapping his hands together, visibly pleased, “Shall we away?”

“We shall,” Gansey said evenly, standing up and fitting easily into the space between where Blue and Henry stood waiting. He nudged Blue’s arm with his own, a silent promise to resume their conversation later. She nudged him in answer,  _ later _ , and they started back toward the car.

 

.

.

 

Later came sooner than Gansey had expected. He was sitting in the air conditioned chill of their hotel room that evening, pajama pants already on, phone in hand as he checked emails and sent another text to Ronan that would be read and never responded to, when Blue cleared her throat softly to catch his attention.

He adjusted his glasses, worn in place of contacts for a night in, and looked up to see her leaning against the second bed, her oversized t-shirt sporting an impressive collection of paint splodges and tiny, mysterious holes. It was difficult to tell, at first glance, if she was wearing anything at all underneath it. When he looked very closely, he could make out the faint outline of a pair of sleep short that did not amount to much.  Her hair was out of its various clips and torture devices, standing off her head in places as if she’d already slept on it, and his first instinct was to pull her onto the bed with him and muss it further with his hands, his mouth, with the shifting of sheets.

“When Henry gets out of the shower,” She started to say, and Gansey’s thoughts stuttered, caught somewhere between Blue in bed and Henry in the shower and himself in a million simultaneous and overwhelming moments. She waited for him, reached out to touch his shoulder and bring him back to the present, and finished her thought, “I want to talk to him. Together. If you’re up for it.”

Gansey was nodding before he was quite sure what he was agreeing to, “Now?” He asked, and answered himself in an nervous babble, “Yes, now. Now would be good. I’m ready if you are.”

“I’m ready,” She said, and came to sit beside him on the bed. He put his phone aside and she fit herself between his parted legs, up against his chest, so he could put his arms loosely around her waist and hold her steady.

They waited for the sound of the shower running in the attached bathroom to stop, and longer, for Henry to emerge from the bathroom in a cloud of steam, his button down pajama shirt paired ridiculously with a pair of novelty Amish Country boxers Blue had chosen for him several tourist traps ago. He finished toweling off his hair and meticulously combing it into an acceptable arrangement with his fingers, and turned to look at the two of them on the bed, smiling something close to uncomfortable.

“I hope I’m not interrupting anything,” He teased, nodding to Blue and Gansey’s fully clothed but very close embrace. Robo Bee hummed from atop the mini fridge, attuned to the minute changes in Henry’s mood, poised in the event that its assistance was needed.

“Not at all,” Gansey assured him, dangerously close to the polite, practiced tone he saved for tense situations, the kind where police might have to get involved.

“We wanted to talk to you,” Blue said, so fearless that Gansey could swoon. She patted the bedding in front of them, offering up the space if Henry would have it.

Towel tossed aside, Henry came over to meet them, sitting cross-legged on the bed. He made a show of getting comfortable, saying, “This is very intimate,” As if there should be eyebrows raised, as if they hadn’t all fallen asleep on each other in the car, in the same bed before, “What’s on your minds, my dears?”

Perhaps it was Gansey’s imagination, but he sounded just the slightest bit nervous. He wanted to reach out to Henry and comfort him, warn him that this had the potential to be lovely, to be terrible too, and none of them knew which direction it was more likely to turn.

“We,” Blue began to say, and looked back at Gansey to make sure it was okay, to be speaking for both of them, “That is, both of us, Gansey and myself, have feelings for you.”

“Romantic feelings,” Gansey interjected, in case it was not perfectly clear. They waited together to see how the news would land.

Henry smiled easily, “That’s convenient,” He said. Perhaps he’d been expecting it. Perhaps he had rehearsed. Whatever the case, he looked quite at home hearing multiple confessions of romantic interest, “Should I cut to the chase and tell you I feel similarly?” He asked, “Have felt similarly, that is, since I first laid eyes on you lovely people.”

Gansey felt Blue relax against him; Henry was, as they had guessed, undoubtedly interested. That was one hurdle of a marathon conversation jumped. Getting ahead of himself, Gansey joked, “Then it’s safe to assume we’ve actually been dating each other for months now without realizing.”

“Our anniversary must be coming up soon,” Henry joked back, and they grinned at each other over Blue’s shoulder and Gansey very,  _ very _ much wanted to kiss him- But there, there exactly, was the second conversation, much harder to have.

“I hate to be a downer,” Blue cut in, “And I’d much rather plan an anniversary party, trust me, but there’s one problem and it’s kind of a big problem.”

“A societal bias toward monogamy?” Henry guessed, pouting.

“Two problems then, perhaps,” Gansey sighed.

“Henry,” Blue said sternly, reeling in their playful moods with her voice of reason, “You know what’s been foretold about me, about when I kiss someone.”

Henry nodded, bright eyed and alert, “You kissed Richard the Third and he died. I saw it happen.”

“When I kiss my true love, they’ll die,” Blue recited, as practiced as if she were reading off a cue card. Gansey tightened his hold on her, very much alive, “It happened once. I don’t know if it’ll happen again. There’s no way of knowing if it applies to you too.”

Henry was quiet for a stretch, looking at Blue searchingly. He opened his mouth, shut it, stared a little longer. Finally, when his words would cooperate, he said, “You love me?”

Blue snorted a helpless laugh, caught off guard by the starstruck expression Henry had acquired. She gripped Gansey’s arms tightly where they were folded over her belly, “I do.”

“Me as well,” Gansey chimed in, both to be helpful and because he didn’t want to be left out.

Henry smiled triumphantly at him, his dazzled expression turning a little fierce, proud. Gansey wasn’t sure quite what drew the line between the way Henry looked at each of them, or what blurred it to the warm affection so often directed at them both, but he wanted to find out.

“But I can’t kiss you,” Blue explained, quickly sobering, “Even though I really, really want to.”

Henry nodded sagely, clearly doing his best to look serious and understanding even as color flooded his cheeks. He glanced at Gansey, then back to Blue, asking, “I can still kiss him though, right?”

Gansey flushed hotly, both indignant and strangely aroused at having the question of his kissability directed at Blue rather than himself, “I’m not cursed,” He said quietly, though he found himself looking to her for the final call.

“If that’s what you want to do,” Blue said shortly, “My… situation shouldn’t hold any baring on our relationship,” She gestured first between Henry and herself, then between the three of them, rounding it out. The restraint was ringing clear through her voice, a solemn sort of acceptance she’d already had to come to terms with once before. Gansey hoped it was easier this time, but he doubted it. Selfishly, he was glad to have already skirted the worst of Blue’s curse, “We could still date without a kiss defining anything,” She continued, shoulders hunched beneath the vastness of her shirt as she sunk back against Gansey’s chest, “ _ You two _ could still be together. You don’t have to hold off on my account.”

Gansey loosened his hold on Blue to rub his hands over the exposed skin of her arms, warm and comforting. He said, “Even if kissing is off the table, there are plenty of other things we can still do.”

“True,” Blue agreed, and extended a hand out to Henry, who took hold of it readily, “There’s nothing prophesized against hand holding. Or sleeping in the same bed. Or cuddling. Or sex.”

“Not even oral sex,” Gansey said enthusiastically, and felt his face heat up that much more when Henry let out a surprised laugh. 

“That is plenty to do,” Henry said, and bit his lip a little to keep from smiling too wide. He scooted a few inches closer to Blue and Gansey, resituating himself on the bed to sit up straighter, hands resting on his thighs, “And I’d love to do all of that with the two of you, and kiss Gansey, for that matter.”

There was an unspoken  _ but _ lingering somewhere at the end of that statement, and Blue and Gansey each waited for it to drop.

“But you know,” Henry continued, inevitable, complicating their complication, “I’d really, really like to kiss you too, Blue.”

Blue sighed, low and quiet and aching.

“I think it’s worth a shot,” Henry said with a shrug, and grinned right through Blue and Gansey’s matching horrified reactions, saying, “What better place to share a possible kiss of death than a shady hotel? If I die out here you guys can write it off as an accident on the road. Robo Bee would corroborate the story.”

“This hotel isn’t  _ shady _ ,” Blue said.

“We are  _ not _ misreporting any deaths,” Gansey insisted.

Henry wiggled the fingers of his free hand in a so-so gesture, “It does have nice towels. And you would have to come up with some kind of story. I  _ am _ a healthy young person, unlikely to drop dead unexpectedly.”

“I’m sure you’re only kidding,” Gansey said carefully, ever the peacekeeper, “But let’s be reasonable about this.”

“I’m not kidding at all,” Henry told them, making the kind of eye contact that left Gansey feeling hollowed out, that made Blue seem electrified, “A life without worthwhile risks is no life for me.”

“Death is a monumental risk, Henry,” Gansey warned, feeling ill.

Henry waved him off, “Says the man who was brought back to life after a death-kiss.”

“Brought back to life by a  _ magic forest _ ,” Blue said sharply, “And those are in pretty short supply. It’s not like we can just take a defibrillator to you and everything’ll turn out peachy.”

“I don’t know about a defibrillator,” Henry said thoughtfully, “But I’m sure you would work  _ something _ out. You always do.”

And although this was technically true, and Gansey was tempted to voice that fact, he thought better of it.

Blue shook her head, “No. Henry, we brought this up-  _ I _ brought this up because I wanted you to know how I felt about you, not so you’d feel obligated to kiss me.”

“Who’s obligated? It’s my choice if I want to risk my life or not.”

“But I can’t let you do that,” Blue argued, leaning out of Gansey’s careful hold, “I couldn’t stand it if you died because of me.”

“Because of  _ me _ ,” Henry insisted, removing his hand from hers to point a finger back at his own chest, “If I know a snake is poisonous and I play with it anyway, it’s my own responsibility if I get bit.”

“Oh, so I’m a  _ snake _ now?” Blue demanded, voice cracking in anger.

“Bad analogy,” Gansey pointed out.

Henry winced, “I’m well aware Gansey Boy, thank you.” 

“You are,” Blue began to say, pushing herself up, one step closer to pushing away, “Impossible!”

Her skin was anger-hot when Gansey touched her wrist, her palm clammy from nerves as his hand fit against hers, steadying, “Jane,” He said softly, pleading, and she deflated slowly, falling back to sit between his knees, fury fading to hurt, to fear. Years of learning the ins and outs of Ronan’s quick and defensive temper had prepared him at least somewhat for Blue’s, though it was so much more satisfying to find success in soothing her frustrations than it had ever been to watch Ronan race off into the night.

Gansey made a mental note; call Adam, see how he’s doing, make sure they’re  _ both _ okay, ask after Opal, too. Adam always kept him in the loop, but it was so different than being there, seeing everyone for himself. Blue he could hold on to, check in with moment to moment. He wanted to be able to do the same with Henry, too, in an ideal world.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Blue said after a pause, and crossed Gansey’s arm over her own chest, making herself stay put, determined not to storm away from a conflict.

Henry reached out to them, putting a hand over Blue’s over Gansey’s, and it was just sweet enough a gesture not to be too silly. Sincerely, he said, “I didn’t mean to call you a snake.”

“I know,” Blue sighed, “And I know what you  _ meant _ . But it worries me that you don’t seem to have any sense of self preservation,” She shook her head wonderingly, asked, “Aren’t you afraid?”

Henry caught Gansey’s eye, smiling, and Gansey knew exactly what he’d say.

“If you cannot be unafraid, be afraid and happy,” He reminded them, “That is what I believe. Of course I’m afraid to die. But it would make me very happy to kiss you.”

Gansey ducked his chin to Blue’s shoulder, Henry’s words landing like a gut punch. He had been happy to kiss Blue too, that first time, even as the world came undone around them and his lungs clung hard to his last breaths. It had been worth it, even when he was certain there was no coming back, “Kissing you,” He said against her neck, “Was the best choice I ever made.”

“That was different,” Blue argued, but the fire had left her, “That was an emergency, a… a sacrifice.”

“Sacrifice doesn’t have to be for the greater good,” Henry reasoned, “I can sacrifice for my own self-interest.”

Blue bit at her lower lip. Slow, as if she had to work to drag the words out, she said with finality, “It’s your risk to take.”

Henry smiled gratefully, “Splendid,” He said, “In that case; If I do die and you two can’t figure out how to get me back, in the event that you cannot bare to live without me and Lynch dreams up a replacement version, please make sure he gets the hair right.”

Blue bit her lip that much harder trying not to laugh.

“Oh, careful,” Henry warned, reaching up to touch the corner of her mouth gently, “Don’t damage those, please, I still want to kiss them.”

Gansey laughed too, muffling the sound against Blue’s shoulder, and she squirmed at the sensation, near-ticklish and nearly in his lap.

Henry laid a hand on Gansey’s knee, leaning that much closer into the arrangement of their bodies. He cupped Blue’s cheek, and looked at her hopefully, “Well then?” He asked, “May I kiss you?”

Blue shivered in Gansey’s arms. She closed her eyes against the possible damage that could be done, whispered, “You may.”

Henry did.

Blue’s body went rigid, and Gansey tensed with her. In an instant the memory of their first kiss came back to him, soft and terrible and life altering, life ending. Phantom pain raced through him, bee sting sharp, choking in its suddenness. And then it passed. And he was holding Blue, and she was shaking, and Henry was pulling away from her with parted lips and half-lidded eyes. Awake. Alive.

“It would seem I’m still here,” He said, and looked at Gansey over Blue’s shoulder, “Guess you got the brunt of that curse, eh GanseyMan?”

Gansey wasn’t sure which of them moved first, himself or Blue, or if they leapt forward in unison, but soon enough both of them were throwing their arms around Henry and pulling him close, holding him tight. Henry laughed out loud until Blue kissed him quiet once, then again, and again. When she pulled away he looked dazedly up, first at her, then at Gansey, saw how crookedly his glasses were sitting after the disorganization of the spontaneous hug, and began laughing all over again.

““It occurs to me,” He said once he’d caught his breath, “That this was poor planning on my part. If I  _ had _ died, I would have missed out on kissing Richard here.”

“That would be a loss,” Blue said, her voice gone tired and dreamy after running a full course of emotion, “He’s a good kisser.”

Not content to be talked about and simply sit there, regardless of how indignant or aroused it might make him, Gansey took a gentle hold of Henry’s jaw and kissed him solidly on the lips. It didn’t feel at all like a first kiss, but rather a continuation of something they had started and never finished. It felt good to come full circle, even if he couldn’t pinpoint the place he’d started from.

Neither of them died, but that much was to be expected.

Gansey kissed Blue as well, when he had the chance, because he loved her dearly, and because her eyes had gone dark with desire at seeing two people she liked an awful lot kiss each other, and because things were better in threes. They lay still for a long time, high on the thrill of falling in love and cheating death, of being more, together. 

“So,” Henry said after a while, apropos of nothing, “Since this kissing business went well, why don’t you tell me more about the oral sex you mentioned?” He waggled his eyebrows at Blue, gaze trained on her not-so-dangerous lips.

“Just what kind of girl do you think I am, Cheng?” Blue shot back haughtily, then passed a conspiratory look between Gansey and Henry, back again, “Besides,” She said, “You should really take that up with Gansey. He’s the one with the honey-tongue.”

Henry’s gaze shifted to him, to the lips he’d just kissed, and Gansey felt himself flush hotly. He was half-sure his chest had gone pink.

“Is that so?” Henry asked, smiling wickedly. Blue smiled too, smug as her small body could contain, and looking at the two of them, Gansey had the sudden revelation that he had just helped to orchestrate his own demise.

Somehow it seemed worth the risk.

.  
.


End file.
